Yanek and his family live in Krakow, Poland. But in just a blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning WWII. For now, Yanek and his family remain in Krakow. For a little while they stay in their flat with several other families. Anti-Semitic rules have been put in place that persecute Jewish people, taking away any rights they had. Over time, walls are built up around the gehtto to contain the remaining Jews who have not been taken for resettlement or deportation yet. One-by-one many Jews were relocated to other Jewish ghettos, work camps, concentration camp or were killed on site.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

With the stress of no food, and constant hiding, Yanek is living in fear of being caught by the Nazis. His emotional state is one of constant terror and panic at what awaits him at every turn. The unknown aspects of the war leaves a feeling of being unsettled. Yanek's early life as a 10 year old boy before the war was very normal. He attended school, played with friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. He loves his Mom and Dad and look up the but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his fathers constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is really right - his father or Uncle Moshe. "I still worried he was wrong but fresh bread made me forget all my troubles. For a little while, at least." (pg.25) Doubting your parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek especially in war-torn Poland.

When Yanek gets taken he feels self doubt and wonders if he should end his life or go with the Nazis. But Yanek feels this wave of self confidence and says to him self that he has to go and find a way to stick it to the Nazis. His emotional state is terrified but also confident. Yanek feels he can do something to stop the Nazis but he doesn't know what he going to do. Yanek was only 13 years old when he got taken away. Over time he started losing more family members as time went on and right before he got take he was the only one left in his family. Yankes mom, dad, uncles, aunts, and cousins were all taken by the Nazis and he wasn't able to do anything about it so he just survived until it was his time. He was taken to a work camp and uncle Moshe was there and he gave him some advice to not make yourself stand out and work hard but don't work to hard to save yourself.

Yanek gets taken in a truck from Plaszow concentration camp to Wieliczka Salt Mine to work. As Yanek goes down the salt mine in the elevator he starts to worry and feels like he is going under the floor again and it starts too feel tight. But someone yells it must be the salt mine and Yanek starts to feel less worried and once they make it there they follow the Kapo to where they will be working. In the mine it is him and three other guys he think that he recognizes someone from Krakow. Then Yanek and the two other guys realize that he is a judenrot from Krakow. The next day they are working and all of sudden the Kapo says something with a worry tone to his voice and come to find out that the judenrot was killed and he had cuts and salt all over him.

During Yanek's time at the Trezebinia concentration camp he stated to gain fury as he first got there because the Nazis were making them work and Yanek had said "This was all a game to them, like a hand of cards or a soccer match. We were the ball, to be kicked around for there sport." Then towards the middle of the chapter Yanek started to gain fear because the camp he was at would beat them and hang them for doing something wrong. At roll call a guy took the club from one of the Nazis and started beating him with it then he got shot and killed. Then other Nazis started calling random people up for them to be killed because they were "apart of the plan". Then at the end of the chapter he gains acceptance that he can't fight back anymore and he will have to deal with what is going on and that he can't make his chances of dying worse.

When Yanek gets moved from Trzebinia, concentration camp he gets put into a cattle car on a train and everyone starts to pack in and it smells like urine,throw up and fesses. Yanek says that it feels like were animals and were being treated like them too. There are so many people in the car that everyone is suffocating so Yanek pushes his way to a vent so he can breath. Then half way through the trip they stop at a train station and people are yelling your going to die there and there gonna make you into soap. Yanek started to worry that he was gonna die. Then Yanek wakes up one night and finds out that man sitting next to him was dead and he hadn't been breathing. Then when they get there they are order to take of there clothes and go into this room with shower heads everyone started to cry because they thought gas was gonna come out and kill them but it never did and instead water came out and they were so happy that they weren't gonna die.

Yanek's Figurative Journey

Yanek started to struggle when he got to Birkenau. The first day he got there he had to go into this room with shower heads and he started screaming and laughing and crying at them to just kill him already and he's done waiting. But as time goes on nothing comes out and then eventually the water comes. Yanek is so happy that his life didn't end and he keeps reassuring himself that "I'm still alive" and he needs to keep pushing for survival. This was Yanek's lowest point of his life. Everyone keeps telling Yanek that tomorrow will be when they gas us. Yanek has to remember that when it happens that he needs to curl up in a ball and go under the vent to die quicker so he won't suffer as long.

When Yanek got to the camp he thought that he was going to there to die. But when he was there they started putting people to the right or left and luckily he got put to the side that you wouldn't die that day. One of the guards told Yanek that the only way out was the chimneys and you would never walk through those front gates ever again. Meaning that Yanek and everyone else will die in the gas chambers so Yanek got the last laugh. Over time he met a guy name Fred they became so close because they were only a year apart and the had a lot in common and they grew up not to far from each other. Then Fred started to get sick and Yanek would say its okay you'll get better tomorrow. Each day would go by and Fred got worse and worse and finally one day Fred couldn't get up for roll call and Yanek started pushing for him to get up or else they would kill him. A Nazi came and said whats going on here and he seen that Fred was still in bed and he began to beat him Yanek tried to get him to stop but the Nazi started beating him. Someone came and dragged Yanek out so he wouldn't die to. Yanek waited and waited for Fred to come out. Finally he seen them dragging out Fred and they brought him over to a rope and chair and hung him. This hurt Yanek so much but he said a prayer for Fred and knew he needed to keep going.

When Yanek left Auschwitz he was order to march until he made it to Sachenhausen. They started to march for days on end. Many people had died from the cold or they had fell so far behind in the line they had gotten shot. Others died from starvation and dehydration. There was about one or two days left and Yanek was walking next to a boy and he looked so ill and starving. The boy fell and Yanek helped him up and started to carry him. As Yanek carried him he started to think what am I doing. He thought to himself I should just drop him and let him die but he reassured himself that he would be dead by tomorrow so he carried him until they stopped for the night. Yanek was searching for his bread that night and he couldn't find it. He thought he must have dropped it when he started carrying that boy. So he was going to steal the boys bread but once he started reaching he thought what am I doing I'm taking bread from a young boy. So he told himself I'll wait till tomorrow morning because I'm sure he will be dead. The next morning came and Yanek reached into the pocket of the boys shirt and it woke him up and the boy asked what he was doing and he said I am checking to see if you are still awake. Then Yanek never got his food. The 13th day came and they finally made it to Sachsenhausen. Then they were sent to the barracks and given soup and bred. Yanek said there were so many dead people everywhere. The next morning they went to roll call and they stood for hours and hours until the sleat had stopped. They put them right to work and Yanek was breaking rocks again. Then it was time for lunch and Yanek got pulled away to go sing to the Nazis while they ate lunch. Lastly the next day came and they had to leave Saschenhausen because the Allies were getting too close.

Yanek was transferred to Bergen-Belsen by cattle car and more people died of starvation and suffocation along the way there. They had made it there and the commandant picked through the strongest and the weakest. He picked the weakest and killed them all. Then the commandant said they will eat and sleep for the next weak to regain there strength. They were given thick rich meaty soup and fresh hot bread. But the next day they all woke up and didn't feel good because they are not used to the thick rich soup. While Yanek was there he meat a guy named moon face. Moon face liked to torturer Yanek for fun he would punch him and beat him the whole time. Yanek thought he was going to be able to survive at Bergen-Belsen for the rest of the war until moon face came along. There was a race the next day to get transported somewhere else. Yanek wanted to stay at Bergen-Belsen but he knew he had to get away from Moon Face so that is what he did.

Yanek gets taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp and when he gets there he said I can tell by the looks on there faces everything I need to know about this place. He was assigned to the stone quarry. He didn't break rocks anymore he carried them. He said if you drop a rock the Nazis will shoot you. They had a zoo and Yanek said that the animals get treated better than us. Yanek said that they were treated like animals too. A SS officer dropped meat in between to Jews and they started fighting over it like they had nothing to lose. The SS officer laughed at it because it amused him. There were two SS officers who had tied up a deer and watched it fight to get out of the fence they stood there laughing hard at it and not feeling any emotion for it. Later that night they got caught and the zoo privileges along with not being able to watch the cinema were taken away for three months.

Yanek gets transported to Gross-Rosen by train and he had said it smelled bad and people are dying of starvation. Yanek would doze on and off the whole time on the way there. When they got put into the train they could only stand because they were so packed in. People died over the days that they were in there. When they arrived bombs were dropping everywhere around them and they can feel the heat of them. So they knew the Allies were as close as ever. When they got out of the train car many dead bodies fell out. They hadn't eaten in days and the cold and suffocation had killed them and they couldn't do anything about it.

The day after Yanek arrived at Dachau the man next to him got camp fever. The Nazis did nothing to help them. Since there was so many sick they didn't make them work. Some days they didn't even have a roll call. One night they woke up in early spring to the sound of explosions nearby. The building in the compound exploded shaking their barracks. All the prisoners sat there covering their head waiting for their barracks to explode. Bullets popped for hours along with planes. The explosions were so big that it shook 7 years worth of dust on the floor. Then close to the morning the shootings and explosions stopped. So they went back to sleep because there was a chance they might have roll call tomorrow in the morning. They woke up the next morning and something was different there was no SS officers or Kapos to wake them up. The prisoners looked around and they kept out of the barracks slowly. Then someone peaked outside and realized that there were no guards. They thought it was a trick but it wasn't. Then they realized they were free and they didn't know what to do because they have been ordered to do things for six years. He wanted to leave but he had no where to go no apartment to live in and no family to go to. Then they seen soldiers and realized that it was the Americans that have saved them and they took them one by one and asked them what there names were and gave them blankets and helped them out.

Yanek was taken to Munich as quickly as possible by the Americans. They were given a bed with pillows and blankets. They gave them a huge feast with a bunch of meat. His life is finally getting better and he is now able to take care of himself. One day he was walking on the sidewalk and he glanced and thought he had seen Mrs.Immerglick so he yelled at her and he was so happy to find someone he knew. She had told him that he had someone cousins here in Munich. He went to go see them and they told their stories to each other about the war. They cried and laughed with each other the whole night. Then they told Yanek that he should go to America to make a better life for him and he would get better opportunities for him there. So he applied for a chance to go to America and after a long time he finally made it to America where his life would be better.